TOMB RAIDER 2 REMAKE 2018 SERIES
And then from there you are off to TIBET!įinally you go back to China for the last series of levels, which is where Shit Gets Real. You hit every deck of the Maria Doria once until you finally claim your prize in a nearby shed the way the level interlocks with itself and loops around is just one of a kind. This set of challenges ends with The Deck, which is just a gigunda level that loops you around a majestically huge ship and cave environment in a sort of "circuit". Tons of things hidden behind blocks, clues that are just a littttttle too obscure (like floor tiles controlling trapdoors and hatches that have nothing marking them), and just a general high level of difficulty all around. This is where the game kicks into high gear because some of the puzzles in here are downright nefarious. You get to piece together all of the different areas of the ship and what each of them was and did when it was upright (or, not upright, lol, once you hit the Living Quarters). Once you finally get aboard the Maria Doria, there's some of my favorite environmental storytelling in the game.
You definitely have no where to go when you start. And think of the absolute CHUTZPA this game has to basically start this sequence at the bottom of the freaking ocean with you on an oxygen timer. Tomb Raider II in general "streamlines" some of its stages to make them less wide open and sprawling and more focused, but when they're open, they're open. The whole Maria Doria section: I think this section is just incredible. And an experienced player can skip like half the stage. Spelunking around in an abandoned opera house with all the traps and dangers of a regular tomb was so unique and memorable. If you're one of those people that complained about tombs being absent in TR2 (and they are for like the first half of the game), then the Opera House really should have been your thing. And I haven't even talked about the incredible Opera House. Whether you're speeding through the canals to beat timed doors or you're climbing chandeliers in Bartoli's hideout, the level design is just so darn good. In addition to the boat, which is so much fun to drive around, you just have these elaborate levels that loop onto themselves and provide such natural platforming playgrounds. So I will dock the game for that.īut the levels! THE LEVELS! They're so damn good. The way bullets register in this game (all hit scan) and Lara's limited combat abilities really make every encounter awkward and stilted. Just like loads and loads of human enemies. Venice: Venice introduces the other big tweak to Tomb Raider, and I really don't like it to this day: human enemies with guns out the wazoo. So to me it's really just about adaptability. I feel like if you watch a speed run of this game, you could basically program the game to execute instructions along a grid and it would all work perfectly. I think these games are so precisely designed around the way Lara controls that it all just works for me.
Controls can be two things: first, accurate, and second, precise. I've never really had a problem with them, though. Lots of people complain about how Lara controls in the classic Tomb Raider games, and without question it takes some getting used to. It's still remarkable for the trust it puts in players to figure things out for themselves- perhaps at some times it gives players too much trust and/or signposts poorly- and it affords players that same sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that other well-known "core" titles have prided themselves on. Tomb Raider II takes the approach of Tomb Raider but distills it into more of an action-based cocktail. Tomb Raider I was a smash hit so of course Tomb Raider II had to follow immediately after.
I also like games that are really challenging and require the player to behave like an adult and think to accomplish his or her objective. I like games with cool atmosphere that enhances the gameplay. I like 3D platforming and I like deliberate 3D platforming where the player has a lot (or all) of control. Tomb Raider was quite revolutionary in 1996 and I enjoy the game for a variety of reasons. I had the pleasure of replaying it this past weekend on my Xbox Series X at 4K with the wobbly texture problem fixed and with 8x MSAA, so it was quite beautiful and ran very smoothly.
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